1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an elevated garage adapted for being built in a limited space in cities. In this specification the term "elevated" means a state where parking places are piled in vertical one or more rows, including a state where they extend underground.
2. Description of the Prior Art
One of the modern urban problems is a parking problem, which involves two difficulties; one is the difficulty of parking cars in cities, and the other is traffic jams caused by parked cars in busy streets. Parking problems are becoming more serious because of the soaring prices of land. Recently land prices have become too expensive to construct garages in cities. There are many proposals for solving the parking problems, among which is an elevated garage. The most popular is a gondola type shaped like a Ferris wheel. This type of garage is provided with many gondolas for accommodating cars therein. The gondolas are carried on conveyor chains circulating through sprockets, and travel in a circle with cars accommodated thereon.
Under this system the conveyor chains are subjected to the entire weight of the loaded cars and gondolas per se. To withstand such a heavy load the conveyor chains must have sufficient strength. It often happens that the loading of cars is one-sided, thereby causing unequal balance. To support the heavy load, particularly the one-sided load, the motors must have a large capacity. Consequently the system as a whole necessarily becomes large scaled and expensive.